Yesterday in Congress, the “National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2011” was being debated. Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-MA) introduced an amendment to the Act that would have removed funding of $485 million for an alternate F-35 Joint Strike Fighter engine (F-136) which was to be built by a joint venture between General Electric (GE) and Rolls Royce. The current F-35 engine (F-135) is built by Pratt & Whitney, who won the contract with the Department of Defense almost 10 years ago, and whose competition for the contract was GE/Rolls Royce. According to Reuters, this is the fourth year that the legislation to scrap F-136 has been introduced, also failing each of the previous 3 years.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has classified the engine as wasteful, as there is no need for a second engine for the F-35. The $485 million that Rep. Pingree’s amendment would have cut from the bill would have been used to reduce the deficit. It’s not much, considering the grand scope of the deficit, but the amendment served a dual purpose, removing wasteful spending and reducing the deficit. You would think that Republicans in Congress would be behind this. Of course, you’d be wrong.The amendment failed, 193-231, with some Republicans voting to strip, and some Democrats voting to save. But one Congressman who voted to save the wasteful spending was our own resident deficit hawk, Frank R. Wolf (R-10). This seems to go against what Rep. Wolf has posted on the home page of his Congressional campaign website, which states:

Nationally, I continue to push Congress to address our nation’s skyrocketing debt, calling for a deficit reduction commission that puts everything on the table and requires Congress to vote up or down on its recommendations.

From reading that, and seeing his vote yesterday, I presume Rep. Wolf would rather pass on the responsibility and have someone else tackle the nation’s deficit, rather than directly voting on an amendment that would reduce the deficit. Of course, Rep. Wolf is no stranger to voting for wasteful government programs, as he voted in lock-step with every Bush administration program that caused the deficit to balloon between 2001 and 2009.

Frank Wolf may talk a good game about reducing our deficit and eliminating government waste, but when the cards are on the table, he’s not a deficit hawk; he’s nothing more than a deficit peacock.

Jeff Barnett knows that we have to solve our nation’s problems in our time and on our dime. As a former Air Force lieutenant colonel, he knows wasteful defense spending when he sees it, and will truly fight to reduce the deficit.

Isn’t it time we had a congressman who kept his word?